Archives for February 2016

Therese Francis, PhD, an NWU member from New Mexico, led an informative and timely session, Taxes for Writers, on January 7 in San Francisco. NWU’s Northern California Chapter and the Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room co-sponsored the workshop. A writer, publisher and accountant, Francis kicked off the current tax season with the lunchtime event […]

“You’re here to help get writers read, the NWU’s here to help get writers fed.”~ NWU member September Williams Hundreds of writers, editors, and publishers met in the city for the 13th annual San Francisco Writers Conference, February 11-15. New and established writers attended workshops with well-known authors, learned about publishing options, speed-dated with agents, […]

The National Writers Union’s Fifth Annual New York conference was a wonderful success. In spite of frigid temperatures, the event was well attended and widely appreciated. “The content of the program and energy of the writers who attended bodes well for the future of the chapter and the union as a whole,” said NWU President Larry Goldbetter. The […]

After traveling to Boston, in January, to perform excerpts of his musical at the American Library Conference Mid-Winter Convention, Garrett Robinson is back in New York City with three more performances of Letters to Zoey in Midtown this March. Check out a video clip: John Chatterton is producing the performances in the Midtown International Theatre Festival – […]

More than three-dozen activists gathered outside the New Zealand Consulate in Midtown Manhattan as part of worldwide protests February 4 following the signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest trade agreement ever attempted. The treaty, negotiated in secret, gives multinational corporations the right to gut […]

A presidential candidate must have 5,000 signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot in New York. Unpaid volunteers for Bernie Sanders in New York State collected 85,000 signatures. On the steps of New York City Hall, about 80 Sanders volunteers stood in drizzling rain February 3 to celebrate their achievement in front of 26 […]

An environmental crisis rages in Flint, Michigan. The buck stops with Governor Rick Snyder (R), who plunged the economically depressed city into a federal state of emergency after switching its water source from Lake Huron to the less expensive, but polluted Flint River. The city’s population is largely black and also poor, since the downsizing […]

What is the easiest way to support your union? Completing an Authors Coalition survey. Each response can generate the same income for the NWU as gaining one new member. In 2015, your participation helped us accrue nearly $160,000 in non-title specific royalty payments. This amount is directly linked to the number of completed surveys. However, […]

With the first caucuses and primaries of the 2016 Presidential Election underway, our parent union, the UAW, is discussing whom, if anyone, to endorse. To aid them in this decision, the UAW’s International Executive Board asked every UAW Region to conduct a member survey to determine whom they preferred. The National Writers Union is Local […]

In June, the Supreme Court will make an important decision regarding unionism when it rules on Friedrichs vs. the California Teachers Association. The case stands to reverse a 40-year precedent established in the 1977 case of Abood vs. the Detroit Board of Education. That ruling established public-sector unions’ right to collect “fair-share fees” from all […]